Comment Book

I’m making a comment book for the exhibition. I want to have a souvenir of all the people who come visit and look at the exhibition.
Since I live at the coast my theme is : sea and shells.

I gessoed the cover of a sketchbook and added several found items :
Scrap fabrics, knitting wool, a picture of a shell and feathers.
I added some stencils
And I will add some colour once the stencil has dried.

In fact, I’m making two books : the second is for my 46 year young sister-in-law who’s fighting against breast cancer.
I wanted a happy theme : thus : orange representing the sun and a butterfly representing the fragility. I will add some threads as connection between the elements and some stencilling also.

Sarah Whitmire is showing us who to make those journals in a ‘altered journals’workshop, she’s working with paper, I’m working with fabric.

“Life is just one damned thing after another.”
Elbert Hubbard

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Nathalie

Exhibition

My doorway is all finished : I simply did an envelop binding. and added some more quilting to make some extra accents around the stones and the door.
I finished it on time to hang it during my exhibition.


This is the presentation/exhibition poster that will hang in the different shops and museum in the area.
I do like the lay out and I'm so happy with it that I want to shout out my happiness !The quilts on the poster are a selection from my work.

The realisation of those quilts were possible thanks to the several online classes I have followed over the years.

To realise the same subject I had a lot more ways to adapt it.

Similar but with a different execution.

"Your very silence shows you agree."

Euripides

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Nathalie

Door Way

I finished the thread painting/quilting of the doorway. Sewing thru the (light) molding paste went like a charm. I used a remain of a synthetic batting instead of the usual cotton batting.

I always try to insert a butterfly somewhere in my work. This time I used a lace butterfly.

If you look closely you will notice that the background fabric is also a butterfly fabric !
Now thinking of a way to finish this door…
Shall I make a binding or not ?
Curved borders or not ?

Maybe framing it….or not.

This is one of my UFO’s. I used the paper piecing technique to make it. This was meant as exercise so I used the fabrics I had in my possession at that time.
I already quilted the compass in the ditch some time (=years) ago and never finished it.
Now I wish to continue it but I do not like it anymore !

And since I do not want any UFO’s in my studio any more…

So I will alter the compass : I will cut it in pieces and re-assemble it in another way so that it becomes a ‘revisited mariner compass’.

This was our weather this afternoon : Snow, only ¾ inch and a lot of wind. I hurried to take a picture because this does not last for long here ; 1 hour later there was no snow any more.

I took this picture from my kitchen, just love the view I have from all the different roofs and trees.

My youngest daughter turned 19 today ! Time flies.
One thing haven’t change in all those years : she’s still the one hugging and kissing her mom the most. I just love it !

“Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of.”
Peter Ustinov

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Nathalie

Pillows

DH asked me to make some pillow covers – how do you call this again ?-
and what did DW (me thus) made ? Yes, indeed…
This is the design I wanted to embroider, well the quarter of the design. And only that partial design took 2 hours ½ to embroider.
Since I wasn’t able to start sewing on my ‘door’ and that I had to stay near the embroidery machine, I made a new background.
I added a colour to the molding paste and cut an onion bag in pieces and added it in the molding paste. I used the heat gun to speed up the drying time.
I then added several colours .
This is the result :

I now have a small background ready for sewing.
I wanted to use a ‘grocery’ bag so that I could see with my own eyes what the result would be.

I had seen it on pictures and read about the use of those bags in several magazines and blogs.
Well it’s interesting ! It would make a great journal cover.
I also want to see the reaction from those onion bags with a heat gun.
Curiosity…

‘I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.”
Steven Wright

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Nathalie

Molding paste

I’m playing with a product I found in Houston : “Molding paste”
I’m glad I saw Lesley Riley working with this product and that I had tried the product during her workshop in ‘Make it University’.
I’m also in an on-line workshop ‘Textured Surfaces’ from Fibre-in-Form where we’re working with a lot of ‘different products’. I just love it but I can’t put much time in the workshop. I highly underestimated the time I had to put in the preparation of the exhibition !

This is what I did so far I added a first colour over the molding paste :
The second colour in the door :

And a last colour overall :

I will add one of my favourite techniques : free machine embroidery and quilting so that this work will have more depth.

If I hadn’t had the luck of taking classes with Sue and Terri, I wouldn’t have discover so many new stuff and I probably wouldn’t have experimented as much as I have.

Who would have thought that -one day- I would use wallpaper and all kinds of wrap in my work ?

“I never made a mistake in my life ; at least, never one that I couldn’t explain away afterwards.”
Rudyard Kipling

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Nathalie

Experiment

While I waited for a surface to dry, I played with a product I found in Houston : Textiva.
I had seen a work from Allison Ray that had intrigued me and wanted to try something using the same technique.
Since it was a experience I used a -for me- ‘ugly fabric’ found in my ‘old’stash ; I melted some Angelina fibers and layered them on the fabric.

Then I layered the Textiva film on the surface :

and free machine embroidered the whole surface.

Then I did (I think) something wrong : I used my heat gun to melt the film.

I saw the film changing colour, become more translucide. Not that it is not nice but the absolute brilliance of the film was toned.

I wanted the kind of holes you obtain when you zap felt or chiffon or painted wonder-under, in the film.

Next time better : I will make the holes in the film with scissors first ; then I will layer the film on the fabric and free motion quilt the surface.
I enjoyed making that little surface , I learned something new and I have one more example to add in my sketch journal !

Meanwhile my ‘molding paste’ door surface is almost dry ! I have add different fabrics on it.

Since I will paint the surface I didn’t care about the added fabric colours. I even added small scrim pieces.

My quilt exhibition is opening in less than a month (12/12/2008 till +/-01/17/2009) and I still have soo much to do. They asked me to speech, telling the reasons of my ‘art’ and the evolution and BLABLABLA…I think I will be sick ! I almost wished I was on a deserted island.

‘I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.”
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)

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Nathalie

Silk Scarves bis

While preparing a lunch at noon I painted a First colour on the stamped scarf :My colour theme would be : blue
Since I had a left over I took some lace and pulled it in the paint :

In the evening when the blue was dry I added the second colour, violet :

Again paint left over :

And this is the result :

My first ever painted silk scarf :

The paint that I used, are :
Stewart Gill Metallica moonlight
Jacquard Dye-na-flow periwinkle
Jacquard Dye-na-flow Violet
Jacquard Lumiere pearl violet
I mixed the paints with water.

Since I often wear a black coat I wanted a luscious colour to illuminate the clothes.

My dog is much better now, she spend the day at the vet’s home with a Baxter full of medicine, glucose and some other stuff to get well again. We’re all happy again.

“According to a new survey, 90% of men say their lover is also their best friend. Which is really kind of disturbing when you consider man’s best friend is his dog.”
Jay Leno

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Nathalie

Silk Scarves

I finally got started on stamping and painting a silk scarf.
These are the stamping results so far :

I’m not used to work with silk and I barely dared to iron the silk on the freezer paper.

Not sure about the iron temperature I may use. And what about fixing the stamps on the silk.

What temperature may I use ? Lenna, please help ?

I once ruined an expensive silk blouse (long ago) and since then I just follow the rules : read the iron instructions on the clothes !
But the scarf doesn’t stick on the freezer paper.

It’s a week that we’re back home and I still ‘suffer’ from the jetlag. Addition a lot of work in the shop and a very ill dog that I love ( of course) very much.
Before I started to play-play in my studio, I first wanted to sort my pictures from New Orleans and Houston. That’s almost done !
And before I could start playing with paint I had to sort the paints. Done !
In fact this was all done on Sunday.

Monday evening my new sewing machine was delivered and I played with my new toy till midnight. The next day I added a sewed text on a mixed-media surface and this is the result :

The background is an assembled white cotton denim.
I wetted and crunched the surface and let it dry. Once dry, I added gesso.
Once the gesso was dry I added paint and some ink design.
On that I added stamped tyvek and I embroidered (without any problems) some quotes on the two layers. I zapped the tyvek with a heat tool.
Now I know that I can add text to my art.
Not knowing how it will look at the end is a bit scary.
I prefer knowing where I go before I start.
I’m not an ‘impulsive’ girl.
At least not in my art...

“The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.”
George Bernard Shaw

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Nathalie

Tyvek

Not all tyvek were created equal fully !
I painted a ‘fabric’ tyvek (see previous post).
Then I cut it in squares and sewed it down to my painted background. I zapped the tyvek with my heat gun and this is the result :
Here you have a detail shot :

I used a metallic thread to sew the tyvek on the background. I’m happy that the paint on the zapped tyvek is more intense !
I think I will use a black background to finish this piece and frame it.

I like the ‘unfinished‘ look of this work :

What I meant in saying that not all tyvek are the same was : Once you start to alter the tyvek, it doesn’t react the same way if you use ‘envelop tyvek’ = heavy or the ‘fabric’ tyvek = light.
If I had used the heavy tyvek I would have had bubbles instead of holes.
Since I wanted the effect I have now, using the light tyvek was ideal.
What I didn’t remember, was that my colours would be more pronounced.
This was a happy accident.

I’m having an idea : I could stitch a text directly on this work ?
Perhaps a poem ?
I’m hesitating…
Should I give it a try … or not.
Anyone any advice ?

“We must give lengthy deliberation to what has to be decided once and for all.”
Publilius Syrus (~100BC)

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Nathalie

Houston Quilt Festival 2008

We had an exciting time in Houston. We had our hotel located near Memorial Park and were surrounded by trees.
I had the chance to meet some mixed media/quilt artists :

Jane Davila

Judy Coates Perez

Lesley Riley

Pokey Bolton

Christine Adams

Allison Ray

Liz Kettle

Janelle Girod and Liz

Tammie Bowser

Cindy Walter

Natalya Aikens

Wasn’t I a lucky girl ?

And I had even more chance to follow some workshops with some of them at the ‘Make it University’ from ‘QuiltingArts’ and ‘Cloth Paper Scissors’.
This is a selection of what I made :

Today I made some pages in my sketch journal to remember those days :

Funky, Festive Fabric Book

Mixed-Media Mosaic

Felted & Stitched Ornaments

Fun and Funky Collage

Stampmaking for Quilt Artists

Surface Design Sampler

Altered Journal

I also made a special page for Sue and Terri with a short review with all the good things we did together.

I received some very special presents from Terri :

and Sue :

On the other hand I painted some tyvek today :

to add on this painted background (I topstitched some white cotton denim leftover) from Terri's workshop.

I will stitch the tyvek on the denim and will heat it up with the heat gun. Since I do not have an idea of a ‘realistic’ image of what to put on my background, I will let the hazard play a poker game. Curious about the result…

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts.”
Rita Mae Brown

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Nathalie